1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to photography of marine organism specimens and, more particularly to an apparatus and method for photographing marine organism specimens. The apparatus is capable of easily and motionlessly fixing marine organism specimens even on a sailing ship by improving the conventional structure to eliminate diffused reflection, thereby enabling lively and realistic photography of marine organism specimens.
2. Description of the Background
Photographing of fish in ichthyic systems is very important for recording characteristics of specimen, characteristic forms and natures, and colors. Particularly, the colors of fish are most important and useful in species classification for many kinds of fish. Although bright colors of fish suffer from disadvantages in that the bright colors of fish easily disappear when the fish becomes dead or fixed, color photographs of adult fish are frequently reported in abundance. Conversely, it is a reality that reports about color photographs of fingerlings and young fish are rarely found. This is because the fingerlings and young fish are difficult to handle compared to the adult fish, and are more prone to weakening or premature death when they are caught. As a result, their photographing must be conducted with the marine organism specimens still swimming in a water tank, and characteristics of marine organism specimens may be more vivid and realistic when they are photographed in a sailing ship before the specimens are transported to a laboratory.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a typical setup of marine organism specimen photography equipment 1 includes a support 10 centrally defined by a round hole 15, a top-open cylindrical water tank 20 supported at a periphery of the hole 15 of the support 10 by a lower circumference for accommodating therein water (W) and marine organism specimen (S), a lighting system 30 for irradiating light toward a lateral surface of the water tank 20, and a camera 40 installed at an upper surface of the water tank 20. The photographing may be conducted with the marine organism specimen (S) floating in water (W) of the water tank 20. Although it is not shown in the drawings, the marine organism specimen may be fixed using a needle or a sucker disposed inside the water tank 20.
The typical marine organism specimen photographing equipment 1 suffers from a disadvantage in that a needle or a sucker may be photographed at the same time if the photographing is conducted while the marine organism specimen is allowed to swim in a water tank or the marine organism specimen is photographed using the needle or the sucker. Another disadvantage is that it is difficult to clearly photograph the marine organism specimen when there occurs a pitching or a rolling caused by waves generated in the midst of sailing of a ship to allow the marine organism specimen to swing or to let loose the marine organism specimen from its fixture.
It would be greatly advantageous to solve the aforementioned disadvantages by providing an apparatus and method for photographing marine organism specimens capable of easily and motionlessly fixing marine organism specimen even on a sailing ship by epochal improvement to the conventional structure of photographing equipment of marine organism specimens, whereby diffused reflection does not occur during the photographing of marine organism specimens and lively and more realistic photographing of marine organism specimens results.